The invention relates to fiber placement machines, and, in particular, relates to filament winding machines, wherein filaments or fibers are extended from a fiber creel assembly to a rotating form.
Typical uses of filament winding machinery are to create reinforced cylindrical shapes for pressure vessels, rocket casings, etc.
Certain prior art assemblies employ structures where the fiber support structure employs a vertically driven cross-slide, i.e. overhead to the horizontal rotating mandrel employed for work support, and the corresponding fiber creel assembly consisting of a plurality of fiber wound spools each threaded through a common payout eye, are carried overhead with the cross-slide. Other types of prior art assemblies employ a horizontally-movable cross-slide which feeds radially of a rotating work mandrel, in much the same manner as the cutting tool on a lathe. The horizontally-moving type machines are also provided with an overhead creel assembly to feed fibers to the payout eye.
It is to the latter type of machine that applicant's invention is directed, the difficulties inherent in the prior art overhead creel assembly being obviated by a novel machine design.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a machine structure having a horizontally moving cross-slide supporting a fiber payout eye, wherein the creel assembly is readily accessible to support personnel.
Another object of the present invention is to provide the fiber placement machine having multiple axes of machine movement, wherein fiber may be placed on a convex, concave, or planar surface.